TOURNAMENT REVIEW: 1876 COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
The tenth edition of the County Championship took the same format as last year, with an open draw for the quarter finals and another draw determining the semi-final matchups, although home advantage for those games was not known until a coin toss ahead of the game. Having surprisingly won the championship at the first attempt last year, Staffordshire were attempting to defend their title and they began with a home game against Lancashire in the quarter-finals, a repeat of last year’s final. The game could not have started any worse for the champions, as pitcher Percival Lambert gave up three hits in the first inning which Lancashire converted into two runs. Lambert, newly graduated from New College, Oxford and now playing for Edmonton in the Middlesex County League, soon settled however and his teammates recovered the deficit in the second, helped by some poor fielding from Lancashire. Pitching dominated until the seventh, when Staffordshire came to life again. With one on and two out, four consecutive hits brought home four runs and took Staffordshire to a 6-2 lead, which Lambert was never going to give up. In fact, after his poor first inning he allowed just one more hit all day as the champions moved through to the semi-finals.
There they would meet either Yorkshire or Essex, with Essex taking an early lead when Greenwich man Timothy Berry drove home a run in the first inning. Three successive hits to open the third allowed Yorkshire to draw level however and Essex were fortunate to escape that inning without falling behind, but they were not so lucky in the fourth as two fielding errors gave Yorkshire the opportunity to move ahead 2-1. The visitors held that advantage until the seventh, when with one out and runners at second and third, Lewis Warren of The Regent’s Park drove home the tying run. This time it was Yorkshire who were fortunate not to fall behind, and with the game heading into extra innings they had the first chance to score. With two on and one out, Yorkshire wasted two chances to move ahead again and paid the price in the Essex half of the tenth. Pitcher Robert Mitchell of Hallamshire hit the first batter in the inning and then gave up hits to two of the next three, giving Essex three baserunners and only one out. It was Timothy Berry again who stepped up and produced another hit, giving Essex a 3-2 win and a place in the semi-finals.
Having seen their run of seven successive finals ended last year, Middlesex were determined to regain their status this time around and started their quarter-final at Surrey in fine form. With two on and two out in the first, Kensington’s Walter Carroll found a hit to bring home two runs and put Middlesex in control, and when they added another in the second Surrey were already in trouble. Although Surrey got one run in the fourth, a careless pitch from Croydon’s Luke Robson gave Middlesex a 4-1 lead in the sixth. Surrey then wasted strong opportunities to close the gap, scoring only one when they had runners at first and third with nobody out in the sixth, and giving up two outs with careless baserunning in the seventh. That was their last chance, as Middlesex pitcher Sidney Fisher eased through the last two innings to complete a 4-2 victory.
Middlesex were to play either Kent or Warwickshire in the semi-final, with Warwickshire looking for their first win and indeed first run since joining the championship last year. They made an awful start, with two fielding errors gifting Kent a run in the first inning, and then in the third Bexley Heath’s Percival Bennett opened up with a three-base hit and came home on a ball into the outfield from Terence Jones of Peckham. Kent led 2-0 and after six innings, Warwickshire were still yet to score a run in their championship history and defeat seemed inevitable. However, a fielding error gave them a runner at second base with nobody out in the seventh and it was Small Heath’s Timothy Phipps who produced the first run for Warwickshire to keep their hopes alive. In the eighth, Warwickshire looked to have wasted a chance with two on and nobody out when the next two men both failed to advance the runners, only for Dudley’s Albert Bassett to find the crucial hit and tie the game. In the ninth, with a runner at second and two out, Kent chose not to pitch to Warwickshire’s dangerous hitter Ezra Rowe, giving him a free pass to first base, but paid for that decision when the next man up, Wilbur Quarles of the Old Wulfrunians, produced the game winning hit. Warwickshire took the game 3-2 and moved on to the semi-finals.
As the two former champions in the field, Staffordshire and Middlesex were allowed to call the coin tosses for home advantage in the semi-finals. Middlesex called correctly, meaning that they would host Warwickshire, but Staffordshire’s call was wrong so they had to travel to Essex for their game. That match-up turned out to be a duel between two pitchers in fine form, and the game entered the sixth inning with no score on the board. It was Essex pitcher Stephen Young who faltered first, as with one out the Regent’s Park man gave up two successive hits to give Staffordshire a real scoring chance. Lionel Lynch of Walsall, one of the star men for Staffordshire last year, stepped up and produced another hit which brought home both runners and gave his team a 2-0 lead. Staffordshire pitcher Lambert was untouchable, allowing only one baserunners and no hits in the remainder of the game. Staffordshire took the win to remain undefeated in their championship history and move on to another final.
In the other semi-final, Warwickshire were unfancied against Middlesex but started well, with Ezra Rowe leading off with a two-base hit and scoring on a fielding error from Middlesex infielder Thomas Ward. Everything changed in the second inning though, as Clapham’s Dennis Dunning got on base to start the inning and Walter Carroll of Kensington then found a home run to turn the score immediately in his team’s favour. With one out, Warwickshire fell apart as an error, three hits and a hit batsman gave Middlesex three more runs and a 5-1 lead early in the game. Pitcher Sidney Fisher was barely giving Warwickshire a look-in, but they earned a chance in the eighth when the first two men got on base, giving them runners at first and third with nobody out. One run scored on a ball hit deep by Simon Tucker of the Commercial Dock Workers, but Middlesex got two more outs on the next play to end the danger. In the Middlesex half of the eighth, Warwickshire brought in Dudley’s David Carr to pitch but his form was poor, hitting one batter and allowing four hits. That gave Middlesex three more runs and an overwhelming 8-2 advantage, which they would not give up. They moved through to face Staffordshire in a repeat of last year’s semi-final, and when Staffordshire called the coin toss wrongly again it would be Middlesex who would play at home in the final.
Given the form of pitchers Fisher and Lambert so far in the championship, it was no surprise to anyone in attendance that the final was another close, low scoring battle. Middlesex wasted a wonderful chance in the second inning when they left three baserunners on, Fisher himself making the final out when presented with a chance to score. They would have to wait just one more inning to take the lead however, as with two out in the third Clapham’s Edmund Hodgson found a two-base hit to keep the inning going. His club teammate Dennis Dunning followed that with a three-base hit which brought Hodgson in, and that lead was soon doubled when Walter Carroll made it three successive hits. Staffordshire now had to find a way to score against Fisher, but found it difficult enough to earn even a baserunner. One man reached base in the fifth and another in the sixth, but neither could advance beyond first base. In the ninth, Lionel Lynch found a two-base hit with two out to keep the champions in the game a little longer, but Fisher recovered to get the next out and end the game. Staffordshire suffered a first ever defeat in the championship, while Middlesex moved one ahead of Surrey in the all-time list with their fourth championship. Fisher was unsurprisingly named as the Best Pitcher for this year, while Edmonton’s Frank Page was Best Player having reached base eight times and recorded seven hits in just ten attempts.
